


Smidgey Widgey

by NeverEverFaceTheDark



Category: The Incredibles, The Incredibles (2004), The Incredibles 2 (2018)
Genre: F/F, F/M, and idk yknow maybe elastigirl thinks that too, bob/helen is red and evelyn/helen is black, but basically this is supposed to be about evelyn, i cannot absolutely will not shove bob out of the way for evelyn, i just want to write about their intense af relationship, look i love bob/helen but also evelyn is just the Perfect Nemesis with a super interesting ideology, recovering and becoming a more chaotic neutral villain, so im applying my degree in homestuck and, who stays in conflict with elastigirl but is also hella sexy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-08 12:32:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15243462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverEverFaceTheDark/pseuds/NeverEverFaceTheDark
Summary: Violet was right.Evelyn gets out 10 months after the incident.Winston Deavor personally informs Helen and Bob about the decision.'She will be under house-arrest,' he says, apologetic but with a determined gleam to his eyes. 'She's been sentenced to community service. 'Helen cocks her head, arms crossed. 'How does that work? Will she be raking leaves on your own lawn?'





	1. Trust

Violet was right.

Evelyn gets out 10 months after the incident. 

Winston Deavor personally informs Helen and Bob about the decision. 

'She will be under house-arrest,' he says, apologetic but with a determined gleam to his eyes. 'She's been sentenced to community service. '

Helen cocks her head, arms crossed. 'How does that work? Will she be raking leaves on your own lawn?' 

Winston throws his arms wide, regular expressive smile back on his face. 'No, no, no, she will be given the means to benefit society with her genius.' 

'She's... going to be inventing again?' Bob says.

'Designing!' Winston soothes immediately. 'She won't have access to anything she could use to break out or trouble you or any other supers again.'

Grief seems to flash across his face.

'I just cannot....stand  to see her in that cell any longer. I take full responsibility for her.'

'That won't do us much good if she goes after us again.' Bob mutters.

Helen's hand finds his arm. 

'Look, Winston, she almost destroyed everything we - you - worked for, enslaved us, almost killed hundreds of people, almost killed _**me**_. You really think it will be safe to let her out? Unless she's had a complete change of heart - well, she herself said she should not be trusted.'

Exhaustion and a certain kind of empty desperation seems to wash over Winston - wash away his jovial confidence. He sits down heavily and puts his head in his hand. 

It is a shocking change.

'She's not eating,' he says softly. 'Not if I'm not there to press her. She just looks at the news all day. She's not designing, not even doodling, not even _thinking_ -so it seems.' 

Helen sniffs, finding that hard to believe of a woman like Evelyn.

'I have had the house installed with the most advanced and secure monitoring technology, based on her own inventions of course,' he flashes a brief wistful smile. 'But changed! Transformed and impossible for her to gain control of. Several security details will be on constant standby.'

He looks up. 'I know this is... a tall order. But I _cannot_ let her rot in prison. I'm sure bringing her home will help.' He sighs, 'If you could see her you'd agree that right now, she's not capable of putting up a fight or pulling off an escape attempt at all.'

'Then I _will_ go see for myself.' Helen says decisively.

'What?' 'What?!' Winston and Bob chorus.

She points a finger at Winston. 'The last time I saw Evelyn Deavor her fighting spirit seemed entirely intact, so it's going to take quite a scene to convince me this isn't all a play on your heartstrings in order to escape justice.' 

For a moment Winston seems stunned. 

'Well....very well.' He sits up, rubbing his forehead.  'Yes. I can arrange that. It might...it might even be best if you - check. I gotta admit that history's proven you better at discovering her lies than I am.' At that he laughs, but a deep hurt sits in the corners of his mouth.

'Hold on,' Bob says, turning to Helen, 'is that really such a good idea? You visiting her?' Helen reads the doubts in his eyes, his misgivings about her being in the same room as her would-be murderer. The worry that it might be a trap. That age-old frustration with the world never staying saved because of stupid decisions and faulty systems.

She smiles at him. 

'Trust me, Bob.'

He does.


	2. Distrust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> historic moment: i finished a chapter 2
> 
> this is quite honestly because of you readers' comments and kudos - the interest really does help! the carrot works! a genuinely unexpected effect but amazing. and thank you
> 
> i am not a prolific writer (as you may gather from the length of chapters) but half of the next chapter is roughly written
> 
> i sincerely hope you like. and i am always open to critical feedback as well - i would like to improve both quantitatively and qualitatively

Evelyn follows every single shred of news about all supers - but mostly Elastigirl. It's like she's trying to torture herself, doing this, tracking their phoenix-like rise, the feel-good nonsense, the propaganda she herself brought into the world blooming like a corpse flower.

All those little kids on the literal sidelines, eyes so very wide and trusting.

She knows that she's not taking care of herself. If she hadn't known then Winston's incessant yammering about it would have clued her in.

Winston through the glass, Winston in her cell,  moving carefully as though approaching a wild animal, his eyes...  
Now fearful.

His distrust is tiring, annoying, which is a hilarious poetic twist on things.

He does not appreciate her chuckles and works himself into deeply sad frenzies of hopeful speeching, pleading questions and desperate admonishments.

The one thing her luxurious prison lacks is some goddamn whiskey.

She'd been ready to give it all up - gave it up - or had she lost it? One by one, her plan, her brother, Elastigirl, her life...

She had not died, though this limbo might qualify as a tartarean afterlife. 

Utterly beaten by Elastigirl in all aspects. 

She finds herself violently waking from dreams in which the oceans' surface rushes up at her at terrifying speeds.

Winston is trying to get her out, she knows. 

She expects he will succeed at making the necessary deal. What she doesn't expect is her daily visitor not turning out to be Winston.

She is seated in front of the news, she hasn't showered, she hasn't eaten, and her guest is announced. The footsteps should have clued her in. She's known the cadence of Winston's gait since they were little.

The sound of the keys, the lock, the eye scanner beep, the reinforced door opening and closing with a bang. She doesn't move an inch. That is until a familiar voice cuts through the noise of the television.

'Has the Screenslaver become enslaved by the screen?'

For a second, her brains have trouble coming to a realistic conclusion. Elastigirl hasn't been summoned from the screen itself, and it hasn't started talking to her. She turns her head at what she prefers to think is a calm pace. 

There is Elastigirl, outfitted in her Incredibles costume. Absolutely resplendent and larger than life, or so it seems after watching her on a screen for so long, after going over the same memories obsessively and borderline involuntarily.

She's just a woman. Just a super. Her....nemesis? She cracks a bitter smile without thinking. She's heard it much too often now.

Evelyn's said nothing so far but Elastigirl invites herself in, grabs a chair and sits at an angle from her. Not that Evelyn officially has authority over this space and who is or isn't invited, clearly. For a second a feeling like yearning - or regret - flashes through her, a sense of their easy talks across from each other - drinks in hand - returns to her. A more complex time.

Elastigirl stretches an arm and grabs the remote, presses the power button. The TV shuts off with a strangely jarring click and flash. Evelyn realises it's been on continously for weeks.

Elastigirl looks around the room and and makes a sound of ambiguous approval. Her eyebrows jump. 

'Not exactly a punishment to live here, is it?'

Then she takes in Evelyn and she frowns. Evelyn can almost see the thoughts flit behind her eyes. She becomes suddenly hyperaware of the state of herself. She must look tired, disheveled, entirely unkempt. She has not cared in months about her appearance but she cares...now.

Evelyn averts her eyes towards the quiet and dark screen. She responds to her as a distraction tactic.

'Is being deprived of one's freedom not punishment enough?'

'Winston tells me he's working on that.' 

Of course - that's why she's here. 

Evelyn rolls her eyes. 'I am at the mercy of the state,' she says without tempering her distaste. 

'They're going to let you go.' Elastigirl keeps pushing.

That sparks something inside Evelyn - maybe disgust. She turns back to her.

'They're going to move me to a _different prison_. Hasn't Winston told you the deal? The hope is that I regain my _muse_ so the military can snatch up my inventions. If anything is left, Devtech gets priority over other companies looking to scavenge. And all that under my brother's _loving guardianship_.'

Elastigirl sits back in her chair and crosses her arms.

'You don't think Winston is doing this out of love for you?' she says.

'Winston doesn't trust me,' Evelyn says and chuckles, but something unexpectedly pangs in her chest and the sound breaks. It's confusing, then mortifying.

There is a pause, as Evelyn struggles with a swell of emotion. Elastigirl echoes her most prominent thought.

'I thought he wasn't supposed to? He wasn't supposed to trust Supers or anyone? No one was supposed to - how did you put it? - put their lives in anybody else's gloved hands?'

Evelyn clenches her teeth and peers back into those framed eyes.

'You should never make yourself helpless by depending on a stranger for safety,' Evelyn says, a statement that feels like a scrape over coals in her heart, ablaze for a moment.

'But you weren't.'

Evelyn turns away. They sit in silence for what seems like an unbearably incalculable time.

'You're getting therapy?'

She almost laughs.

'The best Winston can buy....'

'You tried to kill yourself.'

Evelyn's eyes narrow, but she does not look up again.

'I tried to kill _you_.'

It is self-destructive but she can't bear this any longer. She is not a victim.

Elastigirl stands up, steps away.

'For what it's worth, I think we could have been good friends too.'

The door clangs shut behind her and Evelyn does laugh.

A statement like that is only said to somebody at one's feet.

She would know.


End file.
